stay dry. lou: good evening. the president and national securityeam have refused to stand before the american people for seven weeks to explain how what happened in benghazi. the reit administration refuses to be clear who is responsible and y. every day it is evident president wasn't prepared for the attacks on the consulate, despite warnings and requests for help from the intelligence community. cia operatives were desperate for help. the battle consulate one battleonts the cia annex and they were screaming for help. sources tell fox news three

california operatives reported gunshots at the consulate and they were ordered to stand down. one after it began they ignored the orders and evacuated those who remained to the annex after returning with survivors and one body the operatives requested back up and were denied. again. roughly four hours later they werekilled by mortar fire on the annex building. special operations portions portions -- forces were stationed 480 miles away. less than two hours by aircraft. october 10th the state department justified they were waching and listening to the attacks throughout in realtime. a to over 20th, there was one predator drone overhead during the attacks.

today eyewitness accounts report they were pleading for help by the americans as the terrorist attack at the consulate and the annex. how could be on panetta still say this? >> it is a basic principle. you do not deploy forces into harm's way without knowing what is going on or realtime information what is taking place. as a result of not having that deprivation, the commander general them say and i felt we could not put forces at risk in that situation. lou: cold not perforce is at risk. president obama accepted responsibility finally during the second presidential debate. one month later.

but since then has said nothing. of the president claimed he was unaware any requests to blame -- increase security and blamed others for the shift of the story. >> intelligence was coming as more information came up. what is true of the american people can take this to the bank. my administration plays thee3 straight. we don't play politics with american national security. >> vista's explain why the two video was not part of any explanation t say it is part of the attack. may take this up tonight with john bolton and up to date on the presidential campaign and the polls are

tightening. governor romney makes a speech in iowa as the president has another version of the old plan with better pictures. is the president's definition of fair a reflection of comprehensive enterprise? we began with the benghazi controversy. the explanation does not stand up to what we're learning today. fox news has learned cia operives have a laser targetinpointing the libyan border team attacking the cia and expert but there was no counterstke. our men were abandoned. joining us now is john bolton. also cia operative michael scheuer. good to have you both here. >> if i may.

lou: why and he world are we not able to get a straight answer over seven weeks about what happened to, why? who was responsible and why is theational media seen at -- seem nothing to be anything but lapdog sat? >> why can't we get a straight answer? the story keeps shifting the administrations does not want to own up to the fundamental problem to deny reality. according to them outside is to be dumb -- defeated dumb -- defeated, copies removal was a triumph. that would require them t a bit they misjudged the situation. they did. there are four dead americans.

september 11 enters a timber 13 is important but they were not ready before hand and they should have been. that is the failure. >> i don't think they were not ready but i think they were chomping at the bit to rescue those people. people joined the military to go into harm's way. in a non perfect world you go with the best information and that you have. we don't let people be slaughtered from the drum overhead. lou: it troubles me deeply to think three or 400 americans with national security responsibility of different levels, watched and listened to this.

i'm leaving the president and litical civilian leaders out of this. how could it be they could watch and listen to more americans die? >> i think there needs to be a congressional investigation. i don't think we are in a position to guess the tactical decisions. lou: at i am in a position to ask the question. second-guess is not inappropriate expression. the american people have a right to know. i will not fall into the nonsense of the administration to ask questions that are the right to the american people. >> n, no, no. some people say they should

have dispatched special forces. how do you know, ? maybe they should have. knowing this was a dangerous region or libya was high threat posed, repeated requests for security enhancements, why weren't people ready already? lou: your second-guessing that. why were people expressing themselves before this occurred? >> i cannot agree more. >> my experience is no politician wants to take a chance the media will ridicule him if he takes an action and fails. mr. bush let osama bin nodding get away from the tora bora mountains because it would not send soldiers into perfect arms -- harm's

way so he lived for another decade. lou: they would not send american forces into harm's way? >> on the field and new orders came from washington. >>asol let's him get away the thing th it started. they were afraid of his lawyers. cia is not a combat operion. increasingly put them in that position. who got to afghanistan first? the agency and we have the coffee brewing by the time the military got there. i am sure sooeone to be there first. lou: i think we could all agree there is a considerable confusion in

the united states government and using he role of the military with covert intelligence agencies and the u.s. aid the and confused intelligee agencies with the cia with the military. >> the confusion in this instance is the white house with the president pro all the reasons why we've heard of military force could not be sent, we need permission. how was that? the cia denied request. if the president has an inclination not to use force bureaucrats can follow that. that is the direction. not from leon panetta but from the president. that is what people need to go after. >> exactly. the president hangs around

in this country with people who hate the military, war and defending america up. he wts to go to jon stewart, las vegas, i get himself flattered with young people while soldiers and ambassadors are killed overseas. he is a despicable man in terms of being commander in chief. lou: thank you. more on the worsening scandal. with the "a team" next. 11 days. polls and polls. what happens if neither candidate may -- -- breaches the number of 270? the top stock. another bombshell from the "rolling stone" interview. is clear he is not content ♪

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@%u: a president has a new economic plan strikingly similar to the old one but has more pictures. four more years of the president's policies for the country in just moments. here's what have been don wall street. gdp expanded at 4% but news theconomy is growing as some feared. of the edo squeezes out modest gains trading on the big board. 3.3 billion in line with

recent activity. the dow is down and the nasdaq just over half a percent. gasoline futures moving higher with supply disruptions on the east coast worried about hurricane sandy. the 10 year note is coming back with a sense things are slowly improving. consumer confidence shows rising at to a five-year high. some expected more than that. more bad news with the president green energy agenda. despite -- inspector general slamming the green jobs training program and that the independent report. more than half of the 81,000 who participated and completed the training,

already had jobs. correct. more than half the bowing to the training already had jobs. those who were desperate for work only 38% actually got a job and them spendin 530,000 to achieve those results. the president now has his eye on executive pay rus. the next expansion of government. not a modest proposal that the stability of markets that people may risky bets. they face limited consequence if they don't. >> it tilts bowl system of risky behavior by the time the chickens come home to roost, think of this

concept, chickens and pay, they are ahead of the game. lou: joining us now is steve forbes. the president if he does not win reelection realizes he could be the pay czar? >> i think he will do is go on a lecture circuit. i would be glad to pay him of the to go out of the white house. >> >> this change to those deficits the fact is this president is in a tight race with governor romney it is

not seem there is a clear winner. >> i think governor romney will win the numbers show the majority and they are better able to handle it that obama. even though we getittle changes we still go 35 miles per hour when we should be going 70. people though the rest of the world is not right. the first abate mitt romney proved he can meet -- lead the country. lou: argably he will change the history with that performance. what can be done by president romney to change the trajectory of this economy with more than a job creation achine?

>> number one data piss-off the fiscal cliff. so we don't have a severe recession but simplify the tax code. fire ben bernanke to get somebody who realizes to cheapen the dollar is not the way to wealth. >> he could force him out. >> harry truman showed you could fire the fed chairman. [laughter] as well as a general. [laughter] lou: none of that has the immediate effect of those who have suffered undr this administration. those who don't have a job and are underemployed givg

up then we have a group of ceos speaking up for t multinationals we would like to go to the simpson thing. we want to raise taxes. reject it -- rejected by both republicans and democrats. we hear from business leaders they com up with this. >> how low do the fine balance? i will take that. remove the tax shelter and cut the top rate. >> rahm it -- romney is already proposing nonsense. >> we have a huge tax increase already slowing the economy down.

to the clutter the tax code everyone can declare victory like 1986. we took the jump out and got the ratedown. get those down sharply. >> he will be the president. >> romney has already made these proposals what are they doing? i don't understand the motivation. >> they try to kick congresses but. >> better late than never. >> when you repeals obamacare and get to a sound dollar people think we will do something on the spending side is usual -- the juice will come. the government is not as much of an enemy anymore as it is under this guy.

lou: vice president biden jet lag gourde just joe being joe? you will of the numbers. if you think the government is dysfunctional allow wait until you see the electoral college tied.

the. ♪ why. lou: last night we brought you high check -- high-tech talk talk. we are back with the blackboard. i like the blackboard.

we talked about each candid it's a strategy to get to the magic 270 electoral vooes needed to win, but there is a posibility, and that is what we are going to talk about tonight, that ts could end an electoral college tight. there are 32 ways in which that could happen. thirty-two. it is not entirely the unthinkable. let's go over one of the most plausible possibilities. right now president obama can safely count on 201 electoral votes. that is unchanged from yesterday. romney can safely count on 191. that is changed. that has changed because north carolina, and let me bring this up today here. north carolina was moved to the tossup category just yesterday.

that accounts for the 15 votes that moved away. so where he had at 206, 206 to 201, now 191. and les turn now to of rmney who needs to win north carolina. he is still up in the polls by a significant margin, but four points. yesterday it was more than five. we have that. romney would need also to win, ju as before, the state of florida, 29 votes. let's get that. and he is up two points in florida. he also needs virginia where he is up by one point. let's go there. he is building 248. colorado, where both candidates are tied up right now 48-48. we will give that to governor romney as well. we will move that into his column, 257. president obama right now is up

by two in iowa, what the purpose of this scenario we will assumed that governor romney wins. i'm sure you won't argue. he also needs nevada where president obama right now is up by two and a half points. we are giving that to governor romney. see how this scenario plays out. the president would have to take the state of michigan where he is up by four points. let's give those 15 points to him. wisconsin where he is up by two. this is one of the most -- obviously one of the most important states. ohio where the president is up by two points in a pivotal, obviously as whave been talking about and will be talking about for 11 days, ohio critical. we will give that to the president. pennsylvania. the president is up five points. addinganother 20 points to his electoral count. ne hampshire, those four points

we are going to give. up by just one point. if that were to happen, as you can see, 269-269, we have a time. so what do we do in the event that this occurs? by the way, this is entirely possible. let's go old school. back to the blackboard. and if no candidate receives a majority it triggers what is called a contingent, and there are, i assure you. it is seldom in the house of representatives, and in that case which is the president of the united states, the house would choose the president and then in the senate, and this, by

the way, we should point out, is in the constitution. the senate chooses the vice-president. the contingent election. if we assue the republicans reserve control of the house and senate continues to be controed by the democrats we would be looking at the almost, are you ready for this, and believable, of romney biden ticket would be their results. i'm not kidding. as much as it sounds utterly absurd, just ask that topeople who would be most affected by this scenario, president obama and congressman ryan. if your wondering about the numbers at the bottom of the chalkboard, these numbers i found really interesting today. governor romney give a speech in ames, iowa. it is the number of references in romney's i was beach. he talked about really, ice.

about the economy in the future of the country. and in a complete reversal of what i call the obama ratio, it is a complete reversal. this 1represents the number of times that governor romney used first-person references. wow. hurricane sandy roaring of the eastern seaboard. more than 60 million people in the path of the powerful storm. forecasters fearing damage oan epic scale. is the east coast prepared? president obama once your first time. >> your first time should not be with just anybody. you want to do it with a great guy. lou: the classless, tasteless, knew about my campaign abbottabad that creates voting -- equates money with losing virginity. we have the at and reaction from the "a-team." the president keeps talking about a fair share. governor romney wants to cut taxes across the board for everyone.

the author of who is the fairest of them all, steven more common joins me to talabout prosperity and so anyway, i've been to a lot of places. you know, i've helped a lot of people save a lot of money. but toy...( sfx: loud noise of large metal object hitting the ground) things have been a little strange. (sfx: sound of piano smashing) roadrunner: meep meep. meep meep?

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♪ lou: new accusations today from vice-president joe biden hitting governor romney and republicans on taxes in a campaign event in wisconsin. >> you cannot erase what you have already done. they voted to extend tax cuts for the wealthy giving $500 trillion tax cut so 120,000 families. lou: that's a lot of money. 500 trillion. you have to love the vice-president, his view on things and, his epression. for a little perspective, the national debt is 16 trillion. we'll just leave it there. my next guest says there is no case on economic grounds to raise taxes. joining menow, senior economic writer for the wal street journal, stephen moore, author of the new book, the truth about

opportunity, taxes, and wealth in america. great to have you with us. >> great to be with you. can i say something? this is really the problem in washington. you know, and it's not just joe biden. these politicians can't tell the difference between a billion and a trillion. the the numbers are so big now, everybody's eyes glaze over. a trillion dollars, million million. all lot of zeros. lou: and you know what, we, like you, cover these big numbers all the time. and i can't blame anyone whose eyes glaze over on these numbers abstraction's beyond comprehension irrespective of who is speaking about them. but we do know one thing. we are watching our blood and sweat absolutely pour out of government. we are paying for generations, the madness of these legislators, these presidents, and it is got to stop.

>> lou, i have been in washington for about 25 years. when i first came in the mid 80's during the reagan years, we never talked about the udget in the trillions of dollars. we talked about it in the billions. this is a new phenomenon. that gives you a sense of the magnitude of the problem. lou: i can remember when president reagan -- believe on correct. aaron burr in using the example of how to conceptualize a billion dollars. that was a big idea. he came up with various ways in which to try to help folks understand what it was. a trilliois incomprehensible..3 it is simply incomprehensible. except there are 16 of them that we help. >> and i worked for president reagan in 1987 when he introduced the first trillion dollar budget. we were embarrassed by that. now we increase the debt by 5 trillion in four years, $4 trillion national budget. it really is kind of amazing how much this budget has grown in

the last 2 years. by the way, under republicans and democrats, they're both responsible for this mess. lou: i remember that reagan waas a republican. the first trillion dollars. shame on you for having done that. let's turn. >> i assure you, we were not proud of that. lou: i understand. the idea that we have what we call in this broadcast the gang of 80, abc -- the ceos talking rather sanctimoniously about how to deal with the fiscal cliff. started talking about rasing taxes. i have to tell you, the simpson bowles plan was rejected by republicans, democrats, congress, and the president. let's gt straight. died bless the two men, but they are down. it was rejected. it's over. is not a very smart plan in my opinion. let me be heretical and say point blank. these 80 ceos coming out and

saying they have got said raise taxes, that they were specific about. the rest is still ambiguous. >> you know, this is why i wrote my book. i really wanted to talk about what creates the prosperity in this country, what has made america the richest country in the history of this planet. the conclusion i came to that is not going to surprise you or a lot of your viewers is that the free enterprise system is the fairest of the mall, the system and creates the most wealth, jobs, economic opportunity for this country. here's the problem. going after the top -- lou: what i'm asking you about is the gang of adn tlking about raising taxes. >> right. lou: what is the name of your book again? >> but here is my point. lou: by the way, you can connect. go to loudobbs.com and we have a link. >> the point i was making, was getting to that point. look. the ceos say let's raise the tax on the top 2%.

even if you do that, and you have seen as right about this, even if you take every single dime of every one of those miionaires in america you only find the government for about 4550 days. you're not going to make a dent in the deficit by simply raising even the president says he only praise 50 or billion a year. we have a $1 trillion deficit. you cannot get from here to there which is the point i'm making. we have to start making some cuts in spending programs. lou: he wrote a book entitled to is the fairest of the mall, and we recommend it highly. good to have you with us. a new obama campaign ad reaching out to female voters, testing the boundaries of decency, breaking the boundaries of class and propriety. coming up next, former defense secretary donald rumsfeld joins us, former reagan adviser arthur laugher. stay with us. we are tracking hurricanes sandy.

the very latest for you. this looks like the real deal. ♪

♪ lou: president's -- residents along the east coast are bracing for hurricane sandy, not due to make landfall in text and -- until next week, but it looks like it could be a spectacular event come early tuesday. hurricane sandy has been battering the bahamas, tearing to the caribbean, killing at least 40 people, that is how powerful the storm has bee. still more than 400 miles southeast of south carolina. top winds are barely hurricane strength right now. however, if it should hit the atlantic coast, the neurologists are saying it could blend with a winter storm creating what would be a very dangerous monstrous storm. fox news meteorologist joining us to explain what that might entail.

>> the typical nor'easter, some spots macy 10 inches of rain, rain, not snow, rain, but heavy rain falling. wind will be with us likely around 36, maybe even 48 hours. a lot of people saying wins 40, 60 miles-per-hour, probably some %-massive power outages, and you see where this is heading, boston down toward d.c. lou: already a political effect. vice-president biden and governor romney had to cancel rallies in virginia over the weekend. conservatives expressing outrage over the newest obama campaign ad. get a load of this. the minute-long spot featuring hbo's star lena down and comparing voting to losing virginity. >> the first time should not be with just anybody. you want to do it with a great guy. it should be with a guy with beautiful, someone who really cares about and uderstands women to my dad who cares

whether you get health insurance and specifically whether you get birth control. lou: even going on to my people who don't vote because they're not ready, calling them super uncool. we will take that up with the "a-team." up next, the benghazi's scandal is widening with reports that the cia was telling their officials to stand down. the "a-team" takes up the political implicatns, ramifications. right here. right here. good to have you a jack, you're a little boring. boring. boring. [ jack ] after lauren broke up with me, i went to the citi private pass page and decided to be...not boring. that's how i met marilyn... giada... really good. yes! [ jack ] ...and alicia. ♪ this girl is on fire [ male announcer ] use any citi® card to get the benefits of private pass. more concerts. more events. more experiences. [ jack ] hey, who's boring now? [ male announcer ] get more access with a citi card.

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lou: joining me now, the "a-team".

good to have you will hear. let me start with you. the idea that every day we learn something more about what this administration won't tell us. it is being leaked out, in dribs and drabs, but by gosh, what a dramatic and tragic and heartbreaking bits of information, today learning the fate of the man who asked for help, for support over the course of seven hours and were denied it and killed. your thoughts. >> i just want to start by saying that the cia agents who came in to help were told not to there were told to stand down over and over, which is interesting and unclear what the meaning. they violated orders to go in and get americans out. lou: should they be court-martialed? >> no, they should be given medals. they did their jobs. lou: how is it relevant? >> whoever was in the white house can at the head of the

various security agencies clearly had dcided thehere were not going to do anything. they have the means and chose not o. lou: national heroes. and the fact is their -- i think there are a national disgrace guy an absolute disgrace. >> i agree. they are heroes to give up their life for their country and they're is a lot of information, disinformation. sorting and now will take time. lou: let's stop right there because you're right, but i would like an answer on my question and i would like yo to say who is responsible for the disinformation, who is responsible for the lack of information. how can a president of the united states to stand up before the american people and refused to tell them what in the world is going on after story after story after contradiction after contradiction. others are calling them lies. how in the world can that happen >> the president took responsibility at the third and

final debate. he said it's my administration, and he accepted responsibility for it. lou: so we should vote him out of office on that basis. >> the president is saying we are bringing justice to the people who created the videos. the u.s. government created the video, which really wasn't th cause of the attack. when do you put military into harm's way when your guys are calling for help? these men have lost their lives i don't understand the point of having military on navy ships off shore or add bases surrounding the area if you're not going to use them. >> ijust want to say the president took responsibility for the security failure in the deaths, not for the misinformation and perhaps deliberate misleading of the american people about what was -- the fact that it was terror and were blaming and something else. thats a political choice. >> the president have been better off if he had said this was a terrorist attack, but it's not the same thing as investigating the occupy wall

street when you have police on the ground and the constitution and law enforcement there. you're talking about a foreign nation. lou: let's be clear. the station chief absolutely communicating directly with the situation room. his superiors in washington d.c. the entire national security apparatus had access to live video, live audio in real time of wt was transpiring over that entire duration of the incident. there is no way for leon panetta, the defense secretary, to sit there and say that did not know what was going on. >> remember the stories we heard hat obama produced to kill in london until that last incident where hillary and panetta pushed and finally he went in. they have good intelligence each time. this is the first time. they chose not at.

>> 2008 president obama and candidate obama, if we get this guy in our process we will take the shot. the ticket. lo and this time ragedy and heartbreakingly sell. very quickly to percent gdp owth. >> we're running at about half what it was three and a half years ago. the recovery began in june of 2009. a degree slope. and more of the same. how do we get out of this growth rate? and not seeing a change in washington d.c. unless we had a crisis. that is when you will see changed for. lou: thank you. appreciate you being with us. have a great weekend. up next, one of our viewers looking for david patraeus. is he with the cia? we will be right back. ♪

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lou: for your comments, charles said there's a stinch cing from washington, and it seems to be in the vicinity of thwhite house and the state department. we're goingo leave it there apparently. we're going to -- what are we looking at? bud coburn says it's odd we don't hear from david petraeus concerning the e-seals working for the cia. odd, indeed. thank you for being with us. we appreciate you being with us. have a great weekend, and we'll see you monday. good night from new york.